Blasters are desperate to return to winning ways

Kerala Blasters during a practice session in Kochi on Saturday. | Photo credit: Tulsi Kakkar

East Bengal players during practice. | Photo credit: Tulsi Kakkat

After a lacklustre display in their ISL debut against Punjab FC, Kerala Blasters will be desperate to get back to winning ways when they take on East Bengal FC at the Nehru Stadium here on Sunday.

But once again, the Blasters will be without their midfield general Adrian Luna who is yet to fully recover from his illness. Without Luna, the Blasters looked scattered in a 1-2 defeat against Punjab.

“We had a very poor performance, it was a big loss in the last seconds, it was difficult to handle but we have to move on,” Blasters head coach Mikael Stahre said on Saturday.

“There are a lot of things we need to focus on. We need to cross the halfway line more often and more often with control, so we can bring more numbers up, make more crosses and have more players inside the box. We need to play like the home team. We have amazing fans, we need to play with a lot of energy.”

Both Blasters and EBFC lost their first matches of the season, but there might be more pressure on the Kochi side.

EBFC coach Carles Cuadrat said, “We have to perform well in front of Blasters fans. There will be pressure on Kerala, they will have to fight hard too.”